“I want to know now,” she argued.

  “No,” Angelo answered. “Because you’re right—your stall tactics will only last so long. You need to go out there and play nice with the mundane cops from the next city over. I’ll get Lydia home and we’ll do some research.”

  Taliyah reluctantly nodded, then asked, “Research?”

  Angelo nodded. “Lydia has a mountain of books at her disposal, and I’m sure one of them will contain a scrap of information about whatever the hell that was that attacked us.”

  I wasn’t sure if Angelo really believed that or if he was just trying to calm the waters with Taliyah. Probably the latter.

  Do we have any books that will explain what thing was? I asked my roommate.

  I doubt it, Indigo chimed in from the back of my head. That thing is rare. And your collection is middling at best. No black arts expert or obscure paranormal zoologist will be looking at Occult Oddities as a credible research locale any time soon. I only went there because I was desperate.

  Then give me suggestions for the next order.

  Maybe I will, she sniffed.

  Out loud I said, “I’m pretty sure I won’t have a book on something this obscure, and Indie’s memories don’t have an answer. But she was only a middle-aged witch.”

  “So?” Taliyah asked.

  “So, there’s someone older and more educated than Indigo in the Hollow.”

  Taliyah raised a questioning brow. “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I think it’s time I had a chat with Olga Fischer.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Angelo

  I’d spoken to Olga Fischer exactly once.

  The lovelorn woman had a bit of a reputation for falling hard and fast, and the last thing I wanted was to give her any ideas—something that, as an incubus, I never thought I’d say. Apparently, life was having a very large laugh at my expense.

  As for Olga, I supposed she was attractive. She’d aged gracefully, every line on her face artfully placed. As a rule, I didn’t care how old a woman was—I could find beauty in all women, whether young or old. And Olga was certainly no spring chicken—in fact, she was over three hundred years old. Her long white hair hung down around her shoulders today. She tucked a lock of it behind one ear distractedly as she turned the tooth over in her long, graceful fingers.

  As to the Scapegrace Coven, I’d never intended to go for any of the witches in the coven. Too many odd ducks, in my estimation. And then Lydia had turned up, arguably the oddest duck in the flock, but I’d been instantly transfixed. Still was. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.

  “Tumulus Manducare,” Olga said finally, her German accent thick. If you weren’t good at placing accents, you’d still know she was German, based on the lederhosen her familiar, Franz, insisted on wearing.

  “Tumulus what?” I asked, frowning at the German familiar as he weaved in and around Olga’s legs, singing what sounded like a German ditty.

  I glanced over at Maverick, hoping I wasn’t the only one in the dark regarding whatever the hell Olga had said the beast was. Maverick was sounding out the name under his breath, as if trying to make sense of it. He didn’t know what the hell the thing was, either. Good. I felt a little less like a moron. I curled Lydia a little closer to my side. It took everything I had not to draw her onto my lap. For once, my response to her wasn’t even sexual. Instead, I simply wanted—needed—to feel more of her skin against mine, so I’d no longer worry that she was still warm. I wanted my arms wrapped around her tightly, so I could feel it every time she breathed. I wasn’t sure what we were to each other, but I did know that I cared about this woman—something that didn’t sit well with me, mainly because it was such a new and foreign feeling.

  Wanda sat up a little straighter. She’d been curled in the corner of one of the coven house’s many sofas. She was stuck inside until the sun set, and it seemed to have soured her mood. If I’d been a shop owner, I would have found the limitations of her ruse onerous, too.

  Wanda had been busy sketching something into a notebook when we’d arrived—both of us bloody—and asked to see Olga. Lydia had showered all the blood off (and borrowed a shirt and pants) while Wanda went to phone Olga, who was out for brunch with one of her lovers. By the time Lydia emerged with damp hair, Olga had finally arrived.

  “Are you sure?” Wanda asked, staring wide-eyed at the older witch.

  “Ja,” Olga said with a nod, as she turned the tooth over in her hands once more. “I only saw it once, but zee signature coming from zis feels right.”

  “Could you stop talking circles around the point, please?” Lydia asked, stealing my line. Olga looked at her with raised brows and Lydia explained. “None of us has any idea what you’re talking about, and I don’t know about the rest of you,” she continued as she looked from me to Maverick. “But I still have no idea what the thing is?” She paused. “I can’t even remember what you called it.”

  “Tumulus Manducare,” Wanda answered. “More colloquially known as ‘the Grave Eater’.”

  “You know what that is then?” Maverick asked.

  Wanda nodded. “I read about it in one of Mother’s more obscure tomes.” She looked up at Olga then. “It was created between the first and second blood wars, right?”

  Olga nodded. “Ja. It vas made in collaboration wiz zee Vinter Court of Faerie.”

  “So the monster is fae?” I asked, just to be sure I understood.

  “Ja,” Olga said. “I believe Taliyah’s parents donated zeir magic in return for a favor zey received from Sabine Grimsbane, one of the surviving descendants of Alixia Grimsbane.”

  “How do you know that?” I asked.

  She nodded, as if that were a question she expected. “Becauze I vorked at Blood Rose at zee time. But zee beastie vas not just fae. Celestine’s mozer helped work on zee creature too.”

  “Then it’s witch and fae?” Lydia asked.

  Olga nodded again. “Ja, it’s a dangerous fusion of vitch and vinter magic. Zee creature is carnivorous, a predator.” She rolled the large tooth over in her hands. “See, it has sharp teeth and long claws made of unmelting ice. It zrives in zee cold.”

  “Hence why the cold has been infiltrating everything lately,” Lydia said as she looked up at me.

  “Does it have any limitations?” I asked Olga.

  “Ja. It has faerie limitations, like an aversion to certain metals.”

  “So… was there a reason it went after Florence?” Lydia asked.

  I thought I knew the answer to that one. “Because it’s driven to seek out the undead, and as a zombie, Florence is technically dead. No matter what she looks like on the outside, she’s still a corpse. The rules change when your biological processes cease.”

  “Exactly,” Olga said. “Und it’s not surprising zat zee Grave Eater vent after Florence becauze it vas designed to target zee undead—vampires. It waz supposed to be a veapon to turn zee tide in zee witches’ favor during zee Blood Vars. Obviously, zat didn’t happen.”

  “Why not?” Lydia asked.

  “Because it didn’t target just vampires,” Wanda answered. “It went after any form of undead, and it was vicious about it. Vampires, zombies, ghouls, ghosts—the whole lot of them. And I don’t have to tell any of you that there are numerous ghost populations.”

  “So it was too general in its appetites then?” Maverick asked.

  Wanda nodded. “It started causing problems with other supernatural groups and the mundanes alike.” She paused as something appeared to occur to her. “In fact, I’m pretty sure it must have been trying to get to Libby earlier. Spell, maybe it even went after Darla too.”

  “But Darla’s alive,” Lydia pointed out.

  “Yes, but she wasn’t always alive,” Wanda argued. “She’s still touched by death, as a former ghost.” She cocked her head to the side. “In fact, my death magic probably saturates the duplex from my days living there.”

  “And it probably sensed Indigo all over Lydia,” I said, nodding, because this was starting to make sense. “Indigo died a pretty spectacularly gory death not more than a few yards away from Lydia. Now Lydia has the essence of a dead woman all over her.”

  “I just don’t understand why it’s going after the formerly dead and not the, you know, actual dead,” Lydia pointed out.

  “Right,” I answered. “There are numerous vampires in the Hollow—why hasn’t it been going after them?”

  Wanda shrugged as if that answer were an easy one. “It would have—but both my brothers and their clan are away for the week,” she answered as she waved her hand as if to say she wasn’t sure what their business was but that it wasn’t of much interest to her. “Some political thing with their vampire bloodline. And Lorcan is currently at Blood Rose with Astrid.”

  “If this thing is after the dead,” Maverick nearly interrupted as a concerned expression overtook his face. “The ghost hotel here in town will probably be its next target.”

  “Could be,” Wanda answered.

  “We could set a trap for it there,” Maverick continued.

  I nodded. “I say we get the drop on the SOB and kick his cowardly ass.”

  “That sounds like a plan,” a new voice announced from the front entryway. I craned my neck in time to see Taliyah rounding the corner. Her icy demeanor hadn’t melted away in the intervening hours. If anything, she looked even more pissed off. She crooked a finger in Lydia’s direction. “I need to have a talk with you now.”

  Lydia stood, brushing imaginary creases from her clothes.

  “I’ll be back,” she said with forced cheer. “Don’t start plotting murder without me, okay?”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Lydia

  “How much of the conversation did you catch?” I asked.

  We were situated at the kitchen table. My stomach was too queasy to tolerate anything but water. Meanwhile, Taliyah was knocking back a drink that was more sugar than lemonade. Indie had hinted that faeries had a sweet tooth, but I hadn’t believed her until now. Taliyah treated the drink like it was something infinitely stronger, and had two glasses before she’d even deign to look at me.

  “Enough. Big bad apex predator coming to eat all the undead things in Haven Hollow. We’re going to set a trap for it. Yada, yada.” She took a deep breath as she turned to face me and her expression tightened. “What I want to know is why it’s coming after you.”

  “You heard—” I began.

  “—no,” she interrupted, shaking her head. “I heard speculation, but the theory just doesn’t add up.”

  “What theory?”

  “Libby and Darla make sense as targets—Libby’s a zombie and Darla would be a target because she’s supposed to be dead. She’s got a touch of the other side on her,” she continued.

  “Right,” I said, not following her logic, because she seemed to think I didn’t fit that same picture.

  “If proximity to gruesome death was a lure, the thing would have come after me,” Taliyah continued. “I’ve seen my share of death as a cop in Portland and again serving the community here.”

  I felt my stomach drop. “So, what are you trying to say?”

  She looked at me. Really looked at me. “I think I’m dealing with another Darla situation with you.”

  “I don’t understand. I didn’t use to be a ghost.”

  “That’s not what I’m saying.”

  “Then what are you saying?”

  She paused for a second or two that felt like eternity. “I’m saying I think we’re dealing with a Darla situation with you and Indigo—in as much as someone who’s supposed to be dead, but isn’t.”

  I swallowed hard and forced myself to keep her gaze. Look away and I was fairly sure I’d be admitting defeat and I just… wasn’t ready to show all my cards at the moment. “I’m not following.”

  “Indigo survived that blast in your shop, didn’t she?” Taliyah demanded as she narrowed her eyes at me and my stomach about dropped to the floor for the second time in the course of this conversation.

  “How could she have done that?” I asked, frowning.

  She knows, Indie said from the back of my mind. She’s figured it out.

  Seems that way.

  “Regardless of how, I want to know if I’m talking to the real Lydia Morton or an allegedly dead witch who’s wearing her face?”

  My heart began hammering. God, Taliyah was way too perceptive. I licked suddenly dry lips and croaked. “It’s me. You’re talking to Lydia Morton.”

  Taliyah continued eyeing me narrowly. “How can I know that for sure?”

  “Because you can ask Marty. He knows the truth.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “And the truth is that Indigo is still here?”

  What could I say? I’d just make things worse if I lied now. Marty already knew our secret so it was probably just a matter of time before the rest of the council did. And maybe that time had now come. “Yeah, she’s still here.”

  “Here—where?”

  I leaned back and took a deep breath, wondering how to even start explaining. There was just so much to say. “You were on the right track when you compared me to Darla.

  “On the right track how?”

  “In that my situation with Indigo is similar to Darla’s with Cain. Mine is just less... uh... versatile.”

  “What does that mean? That Indigo’s inside your body?”

  I nodded. “But she can’t control my body in the way Cain can control Darla’s—as I understand it.” Taliyah nodded like she wanted me to continue explaining. So that was exactly what I did. “I’m not a medium, so I’m not equipped to do the back and forth with my physical self that Cain can do with Darla, owing to her abilities. With Indigo and me, I’m always in control. She’s just more like a secondary voice inside my head.”

  Taliyah glared at me, like she was personally offended with my story. “Why lie about it?”

  I shrugged. “Because people are after Indigo. Bad people. And we figured the more people who knew the truth, the more word could get out and the more likely it was that her enemies started coming after me.”

  “Fair point but we could protect you here,” Taliyah pointed out. “That’s what a Hollow is for.”

  “No offense but the only person who was able to protect me from that ice beast was Angelo.” I took a deep breath and shook my head at the memory. “In fact, I’m pretty sure that thing was probably let loose to target me—and in targeting me, it was really targeting Indie.”

  “The Manducare, you mean?”

  I looked at her like the answer was obvious. “That’s the only thing that’s been going around trying and succeeding in killing people, right?”

  “Call it by its name. There’s less room for confusion,” she responded drily.

  “Grave Eater is easier to remember than Manducare,” I argued.

  “Point taken,” Taliyah responded with little interest. “Why do you think it was targeting you or Indigo?”

  “Because it tried to kill me in the church parking lot.”

  “And it failed. You healed.”

  “I didn’t know I was going to. Whoever sent that thing probably didn’t know either.”

  She leaned back and regarded me with suspicious interest. “You said you’d explain your ability to heal so fast.”

  I winced. “It’s not a pretty story and I don’t know the whole story.”

  “I don’t care whether it’s pretty or not. I just want the facts.”

  I nodded. “I can tell you what I know.”

  “Shouldn’t you know all the details?”

  I shook my head. “I only know what Indie chooses to tell me and mostly, she refuses to give me all the details about most things.”

  Because keeping you in the dark means keeping you safe, she piped up.

  Not always. And not in a situation like this.

  “She keeps promising to tell me more, but she rarely delivers,” I continued, finding Taliyah’s expression one of unimpressed suspicion.

  “Shouldn’t you be able to access her memories since she’s possessing you?”

  I shook my head. “No, it doesn’t work like that.”

  “Okay, explain what you do know then.”

  I nodded, figuring I had no other options now. Indie’s secret was going to come out and hopefully Taliyah could keep to her promise of keeping me safe. “From what I can gather, the group that Indigo worked with were in the business of draining magic from supernatural creatures. And somehow they grafted that excess power into their own power matrix—which empowered all of them. I think that same power matrix helped me to heal, since Indigo’s soul is inside me.”

  “Then they what… vacuumed out the power and magic from supernaturals and used it to fuel their own power?”

  I nodded. “Exactly.” Then I took a deep breath because I didn’t want her to think I’d always known as much and was using that excess power for my own benefit. “When I pulled on Indie’s healing ability, it wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. It wasn’t something I reached for intentionally—I didn’t even know I had access to any sort of power, because—as usual—Indie hadn’t told me any of this. Well, not until recently, anyway.”

  “Then it was a big surprise?” Taliyah sounded skeptical and I couldn’t blame her.

  “Yeah. I didn’t and still don’t know what powers Indigo has, because she’s never admitted the truth to me. I don’t even know what supernatural creatures gave her the abilities she has—or had.”

  A sigh breezed through my head. A Kaloth Demon, a night hag, and a kelpie. I was offered more than those, but refused.

  Then why did you accept any supernatural power at all?

  Because I needed the night hag for cover and concealment. They can summon shadows. It also gave me access to their language, marish, which only other night hags can read without pain. It made sending messages easier that way. The Kaloth demon gave me the healing factor, some ability to manipulate fire, and some truly dark power to fuel my spells. The kelpie was to help me spy on certain… creatures.

  In order to butcher them?

  Another sigh, this time louder. Yes, yes, you’re disgusted with me. I was disgusted with me too, when I finally opened my eyes and saw the operation for what it truly was. I had my reservations at the beginning, but I pushed through them.